MOSCOW, Apr 27 Political dismissal, including for good journalistic work, TV presenter Tucker Carlson from the Fox News channel happened against the background of the struggle in the upcoming US presidential elections, which will be uncompromising, said Vladimir Vasiliev, chief researcher at the Institute for the US and Canadian Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
In his first video message since his unexpected departure from Fox News, Carlson said that the American media has a ban on discussing important topics.
Vasiliev noted that Carlson's dismissal took place against the backdrop of an election campaign, shortly before US President Joe Biden officially announced that he would participate in the US presidential race. The expert stressed that, in his opinion, Carlson was fired, among other things, for serious criticism of US President Joe Biden and for supporting the presidential candidate, former US President Donald Trump. But among the reasons for Carlson's dismissal is also ordinary journalistic work, he added.
“The campaign that began in the US will not only be dirty, but uncompromising. By and large, nothing has begun yet, but one can already notice the merciless struggle that shook the entire media world in the US,” Vasiliev said.
“In February-March, Carlson showed videos that debunked a report that the Democrats are betting on in an attempt to file federal charges against Trump for plotting a coup. He showed, as part of journalistic techniques, that this entire report is a lie from beginning to end. And what Carlson said about freedom of speech in the United States really exists: the Democrats are trying to talk about the problems of American society,» the expert added.
According to the director of the Franklin Roosevelt Foundation for the Study of the United States at Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov Yuri Rogulev, journalists in the United States are bound by strict self-censorship, and American society is extremely polarized.
«Both self-censorship and links to politics work, since most of the media in the United States leans towards a certain ideology and politics. Therefore, for some, important issues are not as significant as for others, hence the misunderstanding in American society, disagreements, polarization,» Rogulev said.
He noted that several decades ago the US press tried to take a more neutral position, but now it is almost impossible to find a neutral American media.
«The views of those in the United States who have political levers of influence are imposed on the rest of society, but a significant part of society rejects these views, and the result is a forcible imposition of views, which leads to negative trends,» the expert added.
Fox News has previously said that the decision to fire journalist Tucker Carlson was mutual for the host and the channel. Carlson's further plans were not reported.